62. Year at the Hoover Institution: August, 1980–August, 1981

My year as a National Fellow at the Hoover Institution was without question the most enjoyable of my academic career, which began in September 1969 when I joined the Oberlin College faculty. In the intellectually stimulating environment of this prominent think tank on the Stanford University campus, where I was able to interact daily with eminent senior scholars as well as with accomplished younger research fellows, I was able to focus totally on my work. Indeed, I devoted myself almost exclusively to completing the DDR-Literatur im Tauwetter project, which at this stage involved writing, editing, putting the components of the book into publishable form, corresponding with East German writers and publishers about various matters, and interacting with my editor at the Nordland Publishing Company, Dr. Eva Hirsh. Dr. Hirsh, whom I never met but talked to frequently on the phone, conducted business from her office in New York City. During my year at the Hoover Institution, she asked me to revise many sections of my manuscript, an exercise that consumed a great amount of my time.